About 35 residents gathered at the Goshen Public Library at 6:30 Monday night to discuss the future of their city. The meeting was the fourth of four public meetings that the city planning department has held to gather input on their forthcoming update to the city's comprehensive plan. The topics covered over the course of the evening were Land Use, Transportation, and Infrastructure.

Ryan Smith

After an introduction to the plan by assistant city planner Abby Wiles and an overview of planned past and future transportation projects by city engineer Mary Cripe, the group was divided into five smaller groups that focused on five topics – Growth, Sidewalks, Roundabouts, Complete Streets, and Promotion and Improvement of Public Transportation. According to Cripe, a number of important transportation projects are in the works for coming years, although funding has not been secured for all of them. These include a rerouting of U.S. 33 and S.R. 15 entirely outside of the downtown and the creation of a quiet zone as trains pass through town. She also noted that

For each topic, attendees were given the opportunity to share their opinion in a variety of formats. In two of the groups, citizens were given the chance to express their opinion by being asked to place dots on boards. On the board for Growth, the dots represented various types of growth (industrial, commercial, and residential) and were placed on a map, indicating where the participants wanted to see growth occur. In the section on roundabouts, the dots represented votes for or against roundabouts at various locaitons throughout the city. In the remaining three groups, a groupleader facilitated discussions, with salient points being written on the relevant boards.

The input gathered in the meetings will be compiled and included in the final version of the comprehensive plan update.